A wide-field eyepiece for telescopes and binoculars is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application H02-222914 (1990), but this eyepiece includes at least six lens elements. A wide-field eyepiece is also disclosed in H06-093084 (1994), but this eyepiece includes at least six lens elements and has a field of view of only 54 degrees. Although a wide-field eyepiece consisting of only five lens elements is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application H06-175046 (1994), this eyepiece has a distortion of about 9%, whereas a distortion of greater than about 6% is apparent to an observer. Thus, there is a need for an eyepiece having fewer lens elements so as to be inexpensively manufactured, a wide field of view, and a distortion of 6% or less.